Chupacabracon! A great con and a less than great weekend.

 

So, I know I had said I'd try to post on 1st and 15th, but I held off this post so I could give a review of my weekend at Chupacrabracon, one of the three cons I try to make it to every year. Chupa used to be in biking distance from my house, or a rather lengthy walk. It moved to San Marcos, TX, which is theoretically 52 minutes from my house by car. Theoretically. Traffic on IH-35 is legendary for being an absolute mess, and this weekend was no exception. Still, I was jazzed. I was scheduled to run Shadowrun on Friday, play Battletech/Alpha Strike all day Saturday, and run Robotech Sunday. At Chupa, there is a nice little perq that if you run at least 8 hours of games, you get in free. Score. But things started to change the day after I submitted my games. My wife, Mary, has been suffering with early-onset arthritis in her knee, it was basically bone-to-bone. We suddenly got a surgery date- a week and a half before the con. Recovery for this surgery is said to be 6-8 weeks. As I type this, she's got her home care physical therapy nurse coming to work that new CyberKnee. OK, so, I'll be on nurse duty the same as Mary was when I had my heart surgery, no problem, we'll find family or a friend to assist Mary for the weekend, and I'll hit Chupa. And to be clear, there were more reasons to go than just gaming. Chupa has a lot of industry folks in attendance, from Battlefield Press, for whom I am coordinating the Robotech sub-license effort for Savage Worlds, to Pinnacle Entertainment, and more. And this year, Catalyst Game Labs. I love Battletech and Shadowrun, and Philip Lee, the editor of Shrapnel, was there to talk to about what they look for in submissions. So, cons have become business as well - Retro Arcana needs to get our name out there.

So I was pumped. Ready to go. And the week Chupa was going to happen, we got a call from my wife's surgeon - post-op appointment, Friday at 11. So I had to cancel my Friday game as I'd be in a completely different city. So we did our appointment, and I resolved to go to Chupa Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, traffic more than doubled the time necessary to get to San Marcos, so I missed my scheduled Battletech game. Then my phone rang. My BFF was in the hospital. Stroke. Needed help. My battle buddy Ed and I dropped what we were doing and went to the rescue. Like Ed said, if we don't help our friends what good are we? So, we missed most of Saturday. Made it just in time to be 40 minutes late to the next Battletech game. The awesome Catalyst staffers who were running the game held my spot open, and I was able to play some Alpha Strike. My partner and I were matched up with Rusty Zimmerman, author, and apparently dirty clanner. It was a GREAT game, we barely - BARELY - pulled out a win. The cool thing about this game? We were playing con attendees versus editor Philip Lee, author Rusty Zimmerman, and community manager Rem Alternis. And at the end of the game, each player got to take home a lance of painted 'Mechs. My partner took home our Lyran Guards 'Mechs, and I got our opponents, pictured below.

So, this was amazing. I really dig Alpha Strike- though I'm still a die hard fan of good old Battletech. Great game, close fight, and the MVP on the OPFOR side was the Mad Cat (Timber Wolf for you Clanners) which was the last OPFOR mech to drop, and killed three of our Mechs, leaving only our Stalker standing.

I had to did home after that, to make sure my wife was being taken care of and had to deal with my kiddos for being in Teenager Mode and failing to keep up with Mom Duty. I really dreaded driving back the next day, and wasn't sure I should given the difficulties Saturday caused at home. But we made arrangement for a friend to come over and hang out on nurse duty, and I returned on Sunday to run my game. I had planned on running Savage Robotech, but I didn't have the time I needed to translate Cyclones and Invid into SWADE stats with Sci-Fi Companion data. And I only have 2/3 of the backer draft at that. So I fell back to Palladium- but realized creating last-minute pregens for Palladium would take all night. I did, however, have pregens already made for the Strange Machine Games version of Robotech. So I grabbed my SMG stuff, and crammed well into the wee hours.

Sunday, I explained to the players that we just didn't get the mecha portion of the SWADE Sci-Fi Companion in time for me to have gotten what I wanted done finished, so I was going to run the SMG version of Robotech. We jumped in, and had a GREAT time. Some Expeditionary Force personnel crashed on Invid-held Earth, joined up with a Southern Cross survivor and his Myrmidon tank, recruited some of the locals for a resistance cell, and fought a few Invid and some collaborators. We all had a good time, poked and prodded the AD6 System that SMG used in Robotech, and pronounced it fun. One of my players was even an old shipmate from my time in Starfleet, and it was wonderful to see her and her family. Also - WOW, she played the Medical Corpsman and just happened to have the Medical Cyclone, which sports medical equipment and a pair of vibroblades to cut survivors out of wrecks for medical treatment. Turns out they also cut through Invid. And collaborators made into cyborgs by the Invid. Damn, Doc.

So, it was a rough weekend, but there were a couple of bright spots, courtesy of Chupacabracon, Catalyst Game Labs, and the tag team of Strange Machine Games (Robotech with the AD6 system) and Battlefield Press International (Robotech for Savage Worlds.) Chupa has been a great con since Chupacabracon I. Chupa is one of the three Texas cons I try to hit every year- Chupacabracon, The Long Con, and North Texas RPG Con. Next up: NTRPGCON in June.

Gaming the Game - Subsystems For Their Own Sake

 I have to admit, I'm a sucker for a thematic subsystem. A conceit within a game's rules that is there to model a certain part of the genre addressed by the game. Sometimes, especially in older games, these subsystems can feel clunky, tacked-on, even arbitrary if the reader doesn't see the setting or genre the same way the game author does. But just as with the core rules of a game, there are threads of the intended world coded into these rules and subsystems. These modules themselves both tell you something about the world, and give your players some actual rules to grasp onto to interact with the intended world. So, what the hell am I yammering about? Let's take a look at some of the subsystems that I love to this day.

First, what do I mean about the rules telling us something about the game world? Let's take a look at the good old "wandering monster" mechanics from D&D and many other games. These mechanics usually have dice being thrown at regular intervals of in-game time or distance travelled, and if the result indicates an encounter, another table or set of tables inform the GM what specific people or monsters are encountered. This can also tell you how common or uncommon certain encounters are intended to be in the world in which you're playing - in Traveller, the table of spacecraft encounters gives you an idea of what ships are the most commonly encountered. In D&D, a look at the table for the terrain in which your party travels tells you what creatures are the most likely to be encountered in that area. Taking into account the frequency of a given encounter on the table, and the frequency of encounters happening at all can give you a good idea of what an area is like, how hazardous it is to travel, how friendly others along the route are likely to be. Remember, not every encounter is with someone who will want to fight you.

One could argue that random encounters are probably a core rule of a given game. What I want to talk about are subsystems that do what I outlined above, but a bit more explicitly.

Starships & Spacemen 2e

So, this game is totally not Star Trek. It uses a variation on the B/X D&D engine to do exploration in the Final Frontier. It has a couple of subsystems that I think really add to the genre emulation of the game.

First is the ship's computer. A given character can only ask a certain number of questions per day of the computer upon making a successful check. This may seem strange, arbitrary, and unrealistic. But think about the show upon which the game is based- how often does the computer solve the entire crux of an episode? It gives information, sure, but never simply spits out the entire solution to the conundrum of the week. This mechanic allows the computer to be useful, but not overwhelming to the plot.

Second, and much more detailed, is the resource management system for the character's starships. Each vessel produces an amount of power per game day. This power must be allocated to various functions of the ship, from raising the screens to maneuvering at sublight or FTL, to using the teleporters. There is both resource allocation and risk/reward to be considered, as a ship that uses all its power early on might not have enough left in case an emergency arrives. It can be fun to decide when and how much power to use- or as GM have the Zangid attack the ship after a landing party teleports down, causing the ship to use much of the power it might need to teleport the landing party back up!

Gangbusters 

This TSR classic has some fun subsystems in place to help model the Roaring 20s Prohibition time period. My favorites among them are the criminal ones. Want to run a numbers game? Rules are in place for running one - and for running one that's rigged. Want to set up your own brewing or distilling operation to sell bootleg hooch? Subsystem exists to allow you to do so. Want to run the speakeasy where the illicit booze is sold? Rules are here for how many patrons you serve, how much alcohol they drink, and how many dollars you rake in from your scofflaw practices.

This is really what I'm talking about - each of these subsystems might appeal to a different player, and give them each an activity they can do as part of an adventure, or between adventures. Maybe your players form a syndicate, and one player specializes in the production, and another in the distribution, while a third handles the games of chance that just happen to be run inside the speak while people are drinking their fill. 

Pendragon

This game just drips with genre emulation, but one thing that jumps out to me as a neat subsystem is the Winter Phase. Each adventure is assumed to take place during the summer, or adventuring season, with the knights returning to their manors for the winter. During the Winter Phase, a series of die rolls are made to see what happens. Does your knight find love? If already married, is a child born? Are the horses healthy? How much income do the lands bring in? Was it a good harvest?

The Winter Phase tells a story that adds to the knight's adventures, and perhaps creates impetus for further adventures. It's both extremely pertinent to the intended feel and tone of a Pendragon campaign, and something players can look forward to and attempt to manipulate to greater fortune.

Virtual Realities for Shadowrun

This book might contain the single subsystem I've spent the most real-world time crunching my way through. In fact, I've even created an Excel spreadsheet to help me with it. I'm talking about, of course, the cyberdeck construction rules. They're detailed, they're complex, and they're not something every player will want to deal with. In fact, they may be the very opposite of what some people want in their hobby games.

So why do I include it here? Because for the right kind of player, something like this is pure gold. As a nerd of a certain age, of course I have constructed my own computer- more than once. In the spirit of those first pioneers sending away for the Altair 8800 kit, I built a couple of systems that would have been considered badass in their day. Predictably, I have enjoyed playing Deckers in Shadowrun, Netrunners in Cyberpunk, and various types of hacker in other games.

When I saw the rules for creating my own cyberdeck as a young Shadowrun player in 1990 or 91, I knew that had to be my character's mission. I didn't wanna be the Decker stuck with an off-the-shelf rig built by a megacorp. I wanted my own badass deck. And to do so, I had to start by buying the proper tools. Chip encoder, electronics toolkit, followed by an electronics shop in the basement. I raised my character's skills in the Build/Repair areas, and started making rolls at the end of our sessions. I was constantly tweaking my designs, and rolling for the construction process, and demanding more money from my teammates because I had spent it all on parts and needed to spend more. 

This gave me as a player something to think about and plan for between game sessions. It gave my character something to set their sights on - a reason to go through the dangers of being a Shadowrunner. It wasn't just about money, it was about a computer nerd's bragging rights, and those are worth getting shot at over. Gotta be the best. L33t, as we used to say in the 90s.

So there we go - some examples (without going into specific detail) of the kinds of subsystems I love in my games. Shadowrun was great at having them for several character types - Shaman could build out their medicine lodge, Mages their Hermetic libraries, both could seek Initiation, and form magical societies. Riggers could customize vehicles and drones. Things that can give characters goals, and something to do between sessions. Others are used during game, like Starships & Spacemen's computer and starship rules. In BECMI D&D, there's domain management, and the War Machine mass battle system. Add in the Republic of Darokin Gazetteer, you can build a mercantile empire. Hey, the trading rules from Traveller have led some of my players to create their own cargo shipping lines and dealing with the growing pains of a fledgling line, and piracy, and customs agents. The best kinds of subsystems support the feel the game is going for, and feel like FUN to the players, and add to the narrative.

Let's Try This Again.

Good Lord am I bad at this blogging thing. Or maybe I'm just bad at the whole Life thing.

Since my heart surgery, it's been hard for me to get back to where I used to be mentally. What I found I really wasn't prepared for was the brain fog, the loss of words mid-conversation, the inability to really focus and stay on-task. It was extremely hard for me to finish my part of the Dominions of Steel manuscript in the fall of '22, as I was still in recovery from the surgery and in no real shape to "brain." Apparently, being on a heart-lung machine while my actual heart was physically outside my body caused a condition referred to as "pump head" by folks who have had Open-Heart Surgery. It's caused me to be fairly scatterbrained.

I'd love to stoically plant the haft of my polearm in the dirt and say "That stops now." But I can't, I really don't have any control over the ongoing effects of pump head. But I am learning I can try to power through the fog and get stuff done. Stuff like starting a YouTube channel that I hope to make a companion to this revivified blog to put out my thoughts and feelings on tabletop gaming. To that end, I've used the Tasks reminders so thoughtfully provided by our Google overlords to set goals of posting here on the 1st and 15th of every month, as a bare minimum. 

So, here we go. I'm going to post this little letter, then write a game-related post to get the reboot started.